New Chineese horn finish

How do you determine whether a silver colored Chineese trumpet has a laquer finish? It would seem to me that an inexpensive horn would not have a silver plating and therefore, by default, be laquered. But how do we know for sure?

Remember all those "Selman" bass trumpets on eBay the past several months advertised as "below cost"? I couldn't find one of the nasty things listed just now, but I recall that their ads specified that they were silver lacquered (didn't say squat about plating). On top of that, they specified cellulose lacquer in one part of the ad, epoxy lacquer in another. If your horn refinisher can offer you a choice of clear or gold lacquer, I don't know why there wouldn't be a silver lacquer for junk. It would have to be a lot shinier than aluminum paint.

Yes, I bought one of the things. It's playable, nice and shiny, and has a convincing sort of trombonish sound. I'm not betting on how long it'll stay together, though. I simply don't need a better bass trumpet than that (another way of saying I don't need a bass trumpet at all, just wanted to mess around with one).

The silver plated trumpets will tarnish - go black - just like all silverware. A polish cloth will keep them in perfect condition. Bare brass will also tarnish.

Nickel plate may be lacquered, and painted will not be silver, but a silver colour...perhaps a satin finish paint lacquer. The Gold is usually clear over polished brass, Gold plated trumpets are more expensive, and rare.

On the low cost Chinese horns, you can be sure they are not Gold, but silver plate is not too expensive to do. There are a lot of Brass with Silver Plated Chinese products out there..

There is a place for the low cost Chinese horns, and the quality is getting better all the time. For those that just want to see if it works for them, with a small investment, then it is affordable to try. New Students/ returning players...perfect. Long term life player, then not likely.

I have a few Chinese horns, and quite happily play them at rehersals, or just to play. They are OK, and quite often surprise people who play them just to try out. In the end you get what you pay for, and consistency, quality, reliability and resale issues drive investment...Bach Strad is the Benchmark. But I am happy to play my Chinese horn next to a Strad at rehersal, and not feel in anyway ashamed. My favourite horn to just grab and play is one of my BG Bb horns. A tri-colour copy of the Yamaha YTR-6335. Can't tell the difference, as I have sat beside one in a concert band, and swapped horns. Both of us were surprised at the similarity.

Not sure but on my old student horn it was all lacquered but some of the instrument was "gold" colored, some was "silver" colored. I think that the gold was obviously looking through the lacquer at brass but maybe the silver was nickel? maybe the horn is nickel plated and then lacquered.